All Chapters of He Divorced Me On Our Anniversary: Chapter 41 - Chapter 50

Ethan’s POVThe thing about bad news is it rarely shows up dressed like bad news most of the time it walks in wearing a suit, carrying a folder and smiling like it belongs there.I’m halfway through my second coffee when the email comes in. It wasn't marked urgent or flagged, just another update buried between invoices and project summaries. I wouldn’t even have opened it if I wasn’t already in one of those moods where sitting still feels impossible.Coastal development pipeline. Regional investments. Expansion interest.Boring shit.I scroll and skimming numbers, locations, timelines, until a name jumps out and my finger freezes on the trackpad. I don’t know why it catches me the way it does. It’s not a place I’ve ever worked with. Not one of my usual circles. It's small and out of the way a fishing town. Tourist-adjacent but not tourist enough to matter.Still my chest tightens like my body recognized it before my brain did.“That is weird,” I mutter.I scroll back up and read it ag

Ryan’s POVI don’t meet Donavan in his office because I don’t want glass walls and assistants pretending not to hear things. I don’t want suits and fake smiles and polite voices. I want somewhere loud, somewhere rough, somewhere no one gives a damn if two men sound like they’re about to tear into each other.So I pick a bar on the edge of town. Not one of the nice ones. One of the places where the floor sticks to your shoes and the lights are too bright and the music is too loud for anyone to listen too closely.Donavan is already there he is sitting in a booth like he owns it, one arm stretched out along the back beer in front of him not even half gone. He looks relaxed and that alone makes my jaw tighten.I stand there for a second before sitting just staring at him trying to get my head straight. Trying not to let anger run my mouth before my brain does.He looks up at me and smiles like this is a friendly catch-up. “Relax,” he says. “You look like you’re about to start a fight wit

Maya’s POVMy phone starts ringing while I’m standing in the kitchen staring at a sink full of clean dishes I haven’t bothered to put away yet. I let it ring twice on purpose. Power is a funny thing even when you are paying someone, it feels better to remind them who controls the situation.When I answer, I don’t say hello. “Well,” I say. “Did you do what I asked.”“Yes,” the man replies. His voice is calm, professional, the kind of calm that always makes me more nervous than if he sounded scared. “She’s scared. She knows someone’s been asking questions.”Good.“And,” I say, leaning my hip against the counter, “are you making sure she thinks it’s Donavan behind it.”“Yes,” he answers. “That part was easy people already connect his name to what is happening in that town. It didn’t take much.”I smile to myself. “Good tha i’s exactly what I wanted. Let her think it’s him. Let her focus on the wrong problem.”There’s a pause on the line, just long enough to make me narrow my eyes.“There

Ethan’s POV When Dad called and told me to come over for dinner I knew right away it wasn’t really about dinner. He didn’t use his normal tone. No jokes. No casual “you should stop by.” His voice sounded stressed as if he was holding something back and didn’t want to say it over the phone. That alone put me on edge before I even left the house. I almost didn’t go. Not because I didn’t want to see them because I was exhausted. Tired in a way that sleep doesn’t fix. My head had been spinning for weeks. The PI. The threats. Lena gone. Ryan acting strange. My own thoughts turning on me every time I tried to sit still. Still I drove over. Their house looked the same as always. Lights on, curtains half open. Mom’s car in the driveway, Dad’s truck parked crooked like he never bothers to straighten it. It should’ve felt familiar, safe but instead it just made my stomach tighten. Mom opened the door before I even knocked. “There you are,” she said, looking me over like she was ch

Lena’s POVWe don’t talk about it out loud, not really.It just starts happening.Keenan leaves the house at different times every day now. Sometimes early. Sometimes later. Sometimes he goes straight to the bookstore. Sometimes he swings by Ruth’s first. I change my shifts when I can. I don’t walk the same way to work two days in a row. I park in different spots. I tell myself it’s not fear. It’s being smart but some mornings I wake up already tired and I know it’s because my brain never really shuts off anymore.I’m always thinking about who’s watching, who noticed and who asked what.Keenan doesn’t make a big deal out of it but I see it in the way he moves now. He checks the locks without announcing it. He pauses before opening the door. He looks through the front window before stepping outside. He keeps his phone on him at all times, even in the shower like he’s afraid to miss something important.The bookstore used to feel like something fun for him. A fresh start. A way to build